Father Briar and The Angel (22 page)

“
Give generously and
graciously, please,” Cedric ended the prayer by gesturing to the
donation box in front of his flock. “And eat generously and
graciously of our food.”

All morning, using
knowledge picked up from the cook at Bjorn’s, Julianna cooked. Her
mother, impressed as always by her daughter’s efforts (if not
always the outcome), helped with whatever she could.

“
This morning’s work
reminds me of Jesus in the cave,” Father Briar said,

There was coleslaw, white
and runny with mayonnaise, the cabbage limp and soft. There was
potato salad; this was a largely German Catholic parish, so there
was
always
potato
salad. Made with French’s mustard, it glowed neon yellow and was
always full of chopped onions and dried dill weed. There were
dinner rolls, white bread with even whiter margarine.

But there was also fish;
glorious fish, walleye pike in flour batter, peppered and salted
and so crunchy and golden and flavorfully perfect that it was a
little miracle all by itself.

“
This fish fry is
delicious, Father Briar.”

“
Yes, what a delightful
occasion. A hale and hearty way to break up winter’s
monotony.”

The compliments, unlike the
dollar bills in the collection plate, were in no short
supply.

“
Donate generously, this
goes towards a very worthy cause. We are heating the community so
they can stay warm and safe in their own homes a noble cause to say
the least.” Cedric again gestured and repeated the same holy
rituals; he enjoyed making a show of it all, the mystery of his
office. He also hadn’t had a meal outside of the parish house or
Bjorn’s in more than a week.

Julianna was on the edge of
the room. She sighed in ill-concealed boredom.

“
Whatever is the matter?”
asked her mother. “Are you tired of me?”

“
Nothing,” replied
Julianna. She was tired of such events, because it was getting
harder and harder to conceal her affection for Cedric. It was also
getting harder and harder to conceal her irritation with him. It
was also getting harder to see him giving attention to other women,
even if their spiritual needs were pressing and genuine.

“
I leave in the morning,
if that makes you feel any better.”

“
It makes me feel worse. I
love you, mom.”

“
Alas Father Briar, it is
like the feeding of the five thousand.” An inebriated parishioner,
carried away from drinking too much communion wine, was drawing
silly religious comparisons. Cedric blushed in
embarrassment.

“
We will have no such
silly comparisons here this is a place of worship. Father Briar,
put an end to this blasphemy at once.” Gosha said in anger to the
man.

“
She’s quite the piece of
work, your neighbor,” Mrs. Warwidge said. “Did you know she’s a
welder and something of an automotive engineer?”

Julianna nodded but she
wasn’t listening. She was paying attention to her estranged
love.

“
He was only making a
well-meaning joke.” Cedric pleaded to the angry Pole. “Gosha, I
think that you are misinterpreting. Maybe this is just a matter of
language.”

“
My English language
speaking is flawless. It is not my understanding of the words. It
is the words themselves. Not only were his words incorrect, it is a
sin for you to allow such behavior in such a holy
place.”

“
Well, no man is without
sin. I have never claimed to be ‘holier-than-thou, and even the
Lord Jesus Christ said, “let he who is without sin cast the first
stone.”

The taxidermist tossed a
dinner roll across the room. It landed on top of another table with
a ‘thunk.’

“
It was as hard as a
stone,” he joked. A few of the parishioners laughed, trying to
break up the tension.

She wouldn’t let it drop.
Cedric placed his hands on her shoulders. Gosha erupted in a fit,
looking for all the world like an adorable three year old having a
short-lived temper tantrum in Polish.

“
Cedric, can you silence
this mad woman?” Julianna piped up as she scowled at Gosha. Mrs.
Warwidge was embarrassed for both of them. Cedric choose to ignore
Julianna’s request

“
I can’t just tell her to
do that, she has every right to be here as anyone else,” said
Cedric, trying to avoid making eye contact with her.

“
Why don’t you take the
priest away,” her mother counseled, “you seem to have a calming
effect on him.”

Now what did that mean?
Julianna was about to lose her mind.

The drunken parishioner
(who is being left nameless to protect his reputation) sidled up to
Gosha and began flirting. To his great surprise, she calmed down
and flirted back; at least he thought she did, his mind was clouded
with liquor and his Polish was non-existent.

Julianna took this
opportunity to walk Cedric out to the parking lot as she went to
her car.

“
Why are you so upset with
me today?” he asked. “You’ve barely said word one.”

“
Words, words, it always
starts with words.”

“
Don’t corrupt scripture,
Jewels.”

“
Don’t call me Jewels,
Father Briar,” she said, managing to pronounce “Father” like it was
a curse word.

“
What is
wrong?”

“
Why didn’t you defend me
at breakfast the other day?”

“
I was trying to play it
“cool.” Isn’t that the new slang for things today? Playing it
cool?”

“
I needed you to stand up
for me!”

“
What if Gosha or your
mother found out about the affair? I can’t have any of this. It
would be a scandal. I would be ruined!”

“
I felt
ruined.”

Cedric thought for a while
with his eye still on Julianna, who frowned back at him.

“
I need to talk with the
Lord,” Cedric said, in a somewhat sheepish tone as he retired to
the parish house.

Minutes later, amidst the
bickering, Julianna snuck back to see him.

“
Cedric,” Julianna looked
at Cedric who appeared to be deep in meditation. He opened his eyes
and looked at Julianna.

“
I can’t continue to live
like this,” she told him, trying to sound calm and matter of fact,
although she was anything but.

“
Like what?” Cedric
pretended not to understand what Julianna, who by now was rapidly
losing her patience, was talking about.

“
I can’t continue living
in a lie, Cedric, wandering and sneaking around, skulking in the
shadows like some silly school girl. I won’t be Ramona Herbertson.”
Julianna paused as Cedric looked on in silence.

“
What matters to you more
Cedric? Me, or the church?”

“
Julianna, you present
this to me as if it is an either or. Do you not realize that I, no,
we can have both?

Cedric left a frustrated
Julianna in the confines of his little home.

“
I need time and space
from you, Cedric.”

Cedric looked ashamed,
sheepish, and sad.

Julianna laid down the law
and then left, winning the fight and squashing any potential for a
rematch.

Chapter Twenty Three:
Ralphie Roggenbucker Goes Repairing.

“
The wind tore at the fabric of
reality.”

Ralphie had a lot of time
to himself, time to think. He was on the road a lot and he was off
the road a lot; the quickest and most efficient route for telephone
wires didn’t ever follow the roads. So he spent a lot of time
trudging through fields and forests, without even a dog for
companionship, thinking up sentences like that one and testing out
their roadworthiness.

That Irish blowhard down at
the Weather Service had phoned Ma Earnestine and told her that “a
whopper of a storm was a’ brewing and she ought to let Brannaska
know; he’d just gotten off the phone with WCCO for the fourteenth
time that day.

So he was out shoring up
poles and wires he worried might be a little less stable and
sturdy. His work was solid, to be sure, but he liked to make sure
his customers had service at all times, so he was out looking for
“leaners,” poles that might have drifted this way or that due to
the previous high winds and blowing snow.

If this blizzard truly was
a “once in a generation event, to be sure, laddy,” he wanted every
line and pole secure and stronger than the coffee at Bjorn’s, where
the farmers had to drink it out of steel mugs, lest it eat a hole
through the inferior ceramic ones preferred at other
restaurants.

He also knew that this
storm was strong enough to bring his death. Ralphie certainly
wasn’t planning on that, no, he had a family to survive for. But if
it came to that, he was prepared.

Ralphie had arranged to be
buried in one of the booths at Bjorn’s. Not in the restaurant, no,
he was considerate and practical enough to let them remove the
booth. Those booths were where he’d felt the most safe, the most at
home, and he wanted to spend eternity in one.

So he’d secretly conspired
with Bjorn (he knew the cook would never go for such foolishness)
to have on of the booths removed (to be replaced at Ralphie’s own
expense, of course) and have his perfectly powdered and preserved
corpse to be laid in it, as though he’d fallen asleep after a big
smorgasbord. The whole mise en scene would then be sealed in a
large pine box of Ralphie’s own construction and then put into the
ground, the grave being dug by the biggest backhoe in seven
counties.

Bjorn thought it was the
most succinct and perfect expression of religious faith he’d ever
heard.

There was a pig hauler
attached to the back of his re-purposed Coca Cola pickup truck and
he had his poles all stacked up. If a pole had rotted or broken or
needed to be newly installed, first he would unhitch the chain that
bound them together. The top pole would roll down and settle into
the snow with a soft and misty thud. Then he would role it into
place, right over the post-hole and attach another chain. Then he
would use the pickup to pull them vertical, driving slow and with a
firm hand.

If the poles needed
straightening, he used a similar procedure, often digging out the
foundation of the post and re-packing it with new dirt, all the
while using his eyes and experience as a level, gauging whether or
not the pole was straight. When he was satisfied, he’d pack up his
tools and drive to the next site. It was grueling, exacting, and
exhausting.

It was also peaceful and
meditative. He was probably the most spiritual fellow in town;
Cedric’s clerical collar and Jesuit rigor were easily matched by
Ralphie’s deep reading and time for reflection.

Since he spent so much time
outside, he was also well attuned to the region’s natural
rhythms.

“
That’s odd,” he noted,
something in those tunes seeming out of pitch, “that Timber Wolf is
moving fast. Rare to see them so clearly, and in such
daylight.”

And then the wolf was upon
him. For the sensitive souls out there; I’m sure Ralphie’s death
was swift and as merciful as the capricious hand of Nature could
make it.

Chapter Twenty Four:
Ralphie is Laid to Rest.

There was a knock on
Julianna’s door. She still had her pine and poinsettia Christmas
wreath on the door and she was momentarily embarrassed and worried
whoever this was wouldn’t judge her for still having it
up.

Julianna pulled the
curtains in a discrete and conspiratorial manner to see who was
knocking. Cedric was already looking at her, for he knew that she
always peeped out of the window next to the door. Irritated,
Julianna scowled at Cedric and pulled the curtains back. She wasn’t
ready to see him just yet; she’d needed her space and time to think
and reflect.

“
I’m human,
Jewels.”

“
Unlike many in the
congregation, I never thought you were divine,” she said, acid on
her tongue.

Wounded, he ignored her and
plowed on. “I make mistakes, I know. I just want the best for
us.”

“
Us?”

She still hadn’t let him
in, so Cedric stood in silence in the snowy road. The only noise
was the gentle hum of the nearby generator substation.

The door opened, but just a
crack. She peered through, somehow managing to look hostile with
just one eye. Her hair was in curlers and she was wearing nothing
but a slip.

“
What do you want?”
disgruntled and grouchy, Julianna looked like she was in no mood to
play games.

“
My dearest, I want you,
and I want us to be open to the world about our love. Is it really
that much to ask? But you know that can’t be the case. You know we
can’t share our hearts with the world,” pleaded Cedric, standing in
the featureless snow.

“
You are a conflicted man
Cedric.” the harshness of her words hit Cedric hard.

“
Are you Cedric or are you
Father Briar?” Julianna continued